


Pride and Prejudice

by AgentDamnvers91



Series: Love, Life, Laughter [4]
Category: Coronation Street
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-26
Updated: 2018-02-26
Packaged: 2019-03-24 03:06:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13802076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentDamnvers91/pseuds/AgentDamnvers91
Summary: A family tree school project brings up some unpleasant memories for Rana who decides its time the twins knew the truth about her parents. Nothing to do with Jane Austin lol. enjoy





	Pride and Prejudice

"What is all this mess!" 

Rana had come home from work to find her conservatory looking like a bomb made of arts and crafts supplies had exploded. There were bits and pieces of colored card, felt tip pens and family photos all strewn across the floor. 

"Sorry mum, we promise we will clean it up when we are done." Louisa said without looking up from what she was drawing. Luke was sat on the sofa, the family laptop on his knees as he typed away. 

"No stop a minute. Whatever your doing can wait for five minutes."

"But it's homework." Louisa looked up at her mother and then at her brother when she noticed a familiar look on Rana's face, a look that said don't test me. Both of them stopped what they were doing and gave her their full attention. 

"You know I don't mind you doing projects in here but can you at least try and work a bit tidier." 

"Yes mum." They both said in unison as they started to tidy up. 

"Thank you, what's the homework?" 

"We have to do a project for English. We have to make a family tree and write some stuff about our family." 

The words family tree made Rana feel slightly uneasy as she watched her children sort everything out. Just two weeks shy of their 11th birthday and they were yet to know anything about Rana's upbringing or her parents, except for the fact that they are not around. That's all she had ever allowed herself to tell them, choosing to wait until they were old enough to share the horrible truth with them. The truth was that Rana had not seen or spoken to her parents in almost 12 years and as far as she was concerned the only family she had or needed was Kate, Imran, the twins and the Connors. It wasn't that she didn't want to have her parents in her life but they had made their feelings perfectly clear and Rana had decided a long time ago that if they couldn't accept her than she couldn't accept them 

"Th-thats good." Rana managed to mutter nervously. "Where's mama?" 

"She's on the phone with Aunty Carla in your room." Rana left the room but she didn't have to search far for her wife as she met her in the kitchen doorway. 

"Oh hey babe I didn't realise you were home. Carla's coming to dinner tonight by the way." Kate grinned at her leaning in to give her a kiss. 

"I've only been here a few minutes and yeah course thats fine. Looks like they've been having some fun in there." Rana pointed over her shoulder raising an eyebrow at the other woman. Kate let out a sigh as she looked to see a slightly tidier conservatory but there were still pieces of paper piled on the floor. 

"They promised to keep it clean if I let them do it there instead of at the table." Rana laughed and kissed her again.

"You seriously believed that? have you met our children? You're such a softy." Kate let out a fake gasp at her words and faked offence. 

"I am not!" 

"It's okay, just one of the many things I love about you." Kate smiled and took hold of Rana's shoulders, gently running her hands up and down her arms. 

"Did they tell you about the project." Rana simply nodded, her expression changing slightly at the question. "Are you alright?"

"Yes? no? you know what, I don't know. I don't really know what to think about it. It's not exactly something I like to talk about, especially with them." 

"I know and I get that there still young but if they ask you for their project we can't exactly let them leave it blank. We don't have to go too into specifics but they're gonna need the basics about them." Rana mulled Kate's words over in her head briefly before nodding. She knew her wife was right about this, she knew the questions would be coming eventually, she just wasn't sure she was ready for them. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Aunty Carla!" Louisa exclaimed excitedly as she bounced down the stairs and in to Carla's waiting arms. 

"oooh my little Lou-Lou!" She laughed as Carla squeezed her and gave her a big kiss on the cheek. "You are getting more and more gorgeous each and every day!" Carla pulled away smiling at her niece. "Where's that brother of yours?" 

"Here I am." Luke walked out of the living room and smiled at them before giving his Aunty a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek. 

"Hey there Bud, wow you're getting tall!" 

"I'm one of the shortest kids in my class." 

"Well you're definitely gonna be taller than your mother anyway." The three of them started laughing together as Rana walked in from the living room. 

"Oi I heard that!" She joked before hugging her sister in law. "It's good to see you. How was Spain?" 

"Really good thanks! Dad and Jenny send their love." The four of them made small talk as they went through to the kitchen where Kate was putting the final touches on dinner. "Oh lord Kate is cooking? Good thing your a nurse." The kids were in stitches over Carla's cheeky sarcastic comments and Kate just rolled her eyes with a grin as she pulled her sister in for a hug. 

"yeah yeah whatever. Lou, Luke can you go set the table please." The twins groaned but went off without complaint. 

Five minutes later, dinner was served and they were all sat chatting away around the table as they ate. 

"So kiddos tell me what you're doing in school?" Carla asked as she swirled her salad in her pasta sauce.

"Well we started a new project in English today, we have to make a family tree and write an autobobgraphy about our family."

"Autobiography." Kate corrected.

"Yeah that! Our teacher said that we can make the actual tree together and then we can write two different autobiographies. One about Mama's family and one about mummy's." 

Kate glanced at Rana out of the corner of her eye as she had suddenly become very interested in her plate. Carla seemed to pick up on the slight tension coming from Rana and decided to try and change the subject but it seemed to be all they wanted to talk about.

"I'm writing about Mama which means I'm writing about you." Carla gasped and put her hand on her chest as Louisa pointed at her.v

"Well I'm flattered Lou-Lou. Make sure you tell everyone who the best Aunty ever is." Louisa nodded eagerly. 

"I'm writing about mummy and uncle Imran so I don't have as much to write but it's fun." Luke sounded almost disappointed as he spoke about his autobiography.

"Well you're Uncle Imran is such a big character that i'm sure you could write a whole book on him, what with all the silly things he gets up to." 

"I guess." The room fell silent momentarily as they ate. The atmosphere tense. "Mum?" Luke asked cautiously. 

"Yes Luke?" 

"Why don't you have any parents?" Rana had been taking a sip of her drink and began to cough violently as she inhaled her wine at his question. Kate patted her on the back, giving her a few slaps for good measure. 

"Luke! why would you say such a thing?" The surprise in Kate's voice at his question was evident as he looked guiltily at the floor. 

"It's just...Lou gets to write about Grandad and Nanny Jenny and Granny Louisa and there are SO many Connors and all I have about mum's family is Uncle Imran." 

"Lets talk about this later." Kate could see Rana was beginning to get upset and desperately tried to detour her son from this path. 

"But why? what's so bad about talking about your parents mum? why can't you tell me?" Luke whined and Rana shocked even herself as her hand slammed on the table.

"Just STOP Luke okay? stop going on about it, we are not talking about this anymore. End of discussion!" The words flew out of Rana's mouth before she could stop them, much louder and harsher than she had intended them to and her eyes immediately filled with tears as she saw the look on Luke's face. He was shaking, clearly frightened and looked like he too was about to burst in to tears. 

"Mama can I go upstairs please?" The words came out at barely a whisper as he tried to hide his tears. 

"Course you can buddy, Louisa you too please." As the twins got up from the table, Carla silently got up with them, giving both of their hands a squeeze. Kate was very thankful in that moment her sister was there.

As soon as they had left the room Rana broke down. Her hand flew up to her mouth as a sob came out and Kate instantly gathered her into her arms. She hadn't seen Rana cry this hard in a very very long time and it still made her heart break for her. She gently shushed her and placed kisses on top of her head as Rana clung to her shirt. They stayed like that for a few minutes as Rana composed herself. 

"I'm so sorry." She sniffled, wiping her nose on the back of her sleeve. "I don't know what happened, I just...hearing him talk about my parents...i-i just snapped."

"It's okay." Rana pushed herself up out of Kate's arms and stood up, immediately pacing the room.

"It's not okay Kate! did you not see our son's face? I did that to him. He looked terrified. I promised myself after the way my parents made me feel growing up that I was never going to do that to them. He must hate me right now, I'm a terrible mother." Kate stood up with her and grabbed hold of her shoulders to stop her pacing.

"Don't you ever say that again Rana Connor do you hear me? EVER!" Another tear slipped down Rana's cheek and Kate gently brushed it away before cupping Rana's face in her hands. "You are an amazing mother and our children adore you. This isn't going to change that." Rana's eyes fluttered closed as Kate kissed her on the forehead. 

"What do I do now?" Kate wrapped her arms around her waist, Rana putting hers around Kate's neck. 

"Well I say we let him have some time with Carla upstairs and then, and only if you are okay it...I think we should tell him what he wants to know, what they both want to know." 

"They're just so young, so innocent."

"I know, but they have a right to know and we don't have to tell them everything. Your parents did a horrible thing and sadly they are not the only people who think like they do and you know what kids can be like. One hateful word from an ignorant adult and our kids could be hearing things that could be a lot worse than if we can at least try to explain some stuff to them. They don't need to know the big details, but I think you know we need to tell them the truth." 

Rana pulled Kate towards her, tightening the hold she had around her neck and breathing her in. Even after all this time together, Rana was still deeply in love with Kate and it was moments like this that only cemented in her mind that even though she had lost almost her entire family for her, it was all worth it.

"I love you so much." Rana felt Kate's lips on her neck and it sent a shiver through her entire body.

"I love you too."

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Two hours later and Carla had just headed home. Kate and Rana were very thankful as she had gotten the children ready for bed and had managed to calm Luke down a lot. As Rana knocked on the semi closed door of Luke's bedroom and pushed it open, her heart swelled to around ten times its size as she saw her beautiful children both cuddled together in Luke's bed.

"Hi babies." Rana whispered quietly as she cautiously stepped into the room and sat down on the bottom of the bed.

"I'm sorry I made you mad mummy." Luke's voice was still twinged with sadness and Rana hated herself for that. 

"Come here." She beckoned them both over to her and together they crawled out of the covers and to her side where she put her arms around her children. "You have nothing to be sorry for. I should never have shouted at you like that, it wasn't fair and it wasn't nice and I'm the one that's sorry." She kissed them both on the top of the head. "I need you both to know that your mama and I love you both more than anything else in the world."

"We know."

"We love you too." 

"Good i'm glad we got that settled." The twins laughed slightly as she hugged them closer. Rana took a deep breath as she started what she knew would be one of the hardest conversations they'd ever have. "Now I need to talk to you both about something really serious okay. So come sit on the floor with me." The three of them got down on the floor in a circle and Rana immediately reached out and linked their hands. She looked up and saw Kate leaning against the door frame, a loving smile on her face. Rana motioned for her to come join them and so she did.

"Room for one more?" She joked as she squeezed in next to Luke.

"Okay so, I know we have explained to you both before that all families are different. Some have a mummy and a daddy, some children are raised by other family members or people in their community and then there are families like ours with two mummies or two daddies." The twins nodded their understanding. 

"Do you remember what we told you about why you guys have two mummies and no daddy?" They nodded again.

"Because some women love women and some men love men but thats good because love always wins." Kate nodded, a huge proud smile on her face.

"That's right." Rana continued. "Love is always a beautiful thing, no matter who it is between and I want you to remember that. But there are some people in this world who don't see it that way."

"Why?" Louisa asked in confusion.

"Well there are some people that say that girls loving girls and boys loving boys is wrong. Some people say that they're religion tells them that and some people simply choose to have this belief or are raised on this belief and don't know any different." Rana pulled a photograph out of her pocket and showed it to them. "These people here are my mum and dad, your gran and grandad. Their names are Saira and Hassan and I don't talk to them anymore." The twins looked at each other, clearly confused.

"Why not?" Rana looked straight at Kate who gave her a reassuring smile, eyes shining with love.

"Because sadly they are two of the people who believe that its wrong for your mama and i to love each other and so they chose not to be a part of our lives." Rana could feel the tears starting to form in her eyes. "It's very very sad that they made that choice but it is not our fault." 

"Love is love." The twins both said in unison and Rana couldn't stop the tears from falling. 

"Exactly. Now the world is a much better place than it used to be and people are a lot nicer about our kind of love now but one day you may still hear some people saying nasty things and I want you to ignore them and hold your heads up high and know there is nothing that either of you can do to make us stop loving you."

"Never?" Luke asked, the worry obvious in his voice. 

"Never EVER!" Kate stuck her tongue out at him getting a small laugh from her little boy. 

"So thats why I don't like to talk about my mummy and daddy okay? but if you want to include them in your project then of course you can." 

"Thanks mum, I know exactly what i'm gonna do now!"

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A month later, the twins finally got their family tree projects back and they were both over the moon when they received two of the highest marks in their class.

"I am so proud of you guys!" Rana exclaimed as she hugged them both. "Just you wait till your mama see's this, she is going to FREAK OUT!"

"Mum I want you to read you what I wrote for my autobiography. Can I?"

"Of course you can babe." Rana and Louisa sat down on the sofa in front of Luke as he held up his paper.

"My mum's name is Rana Connor but she used to be Rana Habeeb before she got married. On my mum's side I have an uncle named Imran which is my middle name. Imran is my mum's older brother and they are very close. When my mum was pregnant with me and my sister, the doctor told them that she was a boy too and they were going to call her Imran but that would have been a silly name for a girl." 

Both Rana and Louisa laughed at that. 

"My mum is a nurse and she is the best one ever. She is so kind to her patients and looks after everyone all the time, even when she isn't working. Most kids can talk about their grandparents when they talk about their mum's family and I could but I don't want to." Rana felt her breath hitch at his words and she swallowed down the lump in her throat. 

"It's not that I don't know about them, I know enough. Their names are Saira and Hassan and they live in somewhere in Manchester but I don't know where. I am a boy with two mum's and It's awesome because my mum's are the best. My mum's parents aren't in our lives because they don't believe in love and thats okay because my mum has all the family she needs. My mum and mama always tell me and Louisa that love is love and love always wins and I think thats great. My mama has a big enough family for all of us and I was sad at first to only write about my Uncle and my mum in this but now I am happy because I know that the people in my family love me and that is all we need." 

Louisa clapped as her brother finished speaking and Rana had tears streaming down her face as she joined in.

"I wrote more about you and Uncle Imran and dates and stuff but I wanted to show you that bit. Did you like it."

Rana stood up and hugged her son tightly.

"I loved it Luke, thank you so much." 

"I love you too mum." 

Louisa joined them to make it a group hug and as Rana held her children she knew that they would be okay. She knew the world could be a hateful place, she knew that better than most but these two little humans made all of her loses seem worthwhile and she wouldn't trade her life for the world. Her parents were wrong when they said she had shamed them and she wishes that she could show them that her children were far from shameful, they were joy and love and happiness and everything beautiful about the world.

The fact that they would never know how wonderful her life had become was completely on them. Like Luke had said, she had everything she would ever need.


End file.
